Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Republican Budget

Paul Ryan's budget shows that House Republicans are focused on advancing serious plans to resolve the extraordinarily high federal deficit/debt. The Democrats will scream that the Ryan budget will hurt the poor, but the simple fact is that Ryan has offered a plan that resolves America's fiscal crisis and preserves medicare/social security for the benefit of future generations.

As the NY Times notes,

'Under the House plan, the current $1.18 trillion deficit would fall to $797 billion in the coming fiscal year, compared with $977 billion under Mr. Obama’s plan. By 2016, the deficit would fall to $241 billion by Republican estimates. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last week that Mr. Obama’s budget would still have a $529 billion deficit in 2016.

The Ryan plan would accumulate $3.1 trillion in additional debt through 2022. The president’s would add $6.4 trillion, more than twice that total. The Republican budget cuts spending by $5 trillion more than the president’s plan.' [5.3 trillion/10 yrs]

Ezra Klein at the WPost argues that the Ryan plan resolves the debt on the backs of the poor. I challenge that premise. 49% of Americans don't even pay federal income taxes. In addition, the Ryan plan cuts tax rates to just two rates (25% and 10%) by ridding the system of the tax loopholes/inefficiencies that are used by the rich and that lose the Government huge amounts of revenue each year. At the same time, Ryan adopts the bi-partisan medicare proposal that Democrat Ros Wyden helped author. The Democrats have offered no solutions to the looming medicare bankruptcy. The US should not be a something for nothing society. Klein suggests that the $5.3 trillion reduction is unnecessarily high.. My response? Not when our interest payments are this high.

Obama and the Democrats in Congress have abdicated the responsibility of governing. They are in full election mode. Look for more political scare tactics like this. There is no question that the GOP is taking substantial political risk in proposing this plan. Pain is rarely popular but sometimes it is necessary. Republicans are gambling that Americans will prefer a future in which medicare and social security are preserved for those who will need it, taxes are low and personal responsibility remains part of the American way of life. The Democrats want to drag America towards a European style social welfare system.. with high taxes and big government. There's nothing wrong with this (in a democracy people should be able to chose to live in whatever kind of system they want and many Europeans are v. happy with their system), but the Democrats are lying to the American people when they pretend that the rich alone can pay off the debt.

The Republicans now have a plan in which the sums add up. Democrats have a joke.